THE ROAD TO AVERNUS 



His aim, for it takes off his sight, and 

 / cough while the handkerchief drops. 



And you keep both eyes on his figure, 

 Old fellow, and don't take them off. 



You've got the sawhandled hair trigger — 

 You sight him and shoot when I cough. 



Laurence (aside) : 



Though God will never forgive me, 



Though men make light of my name, 

 Though my sin and my shame outlive me, 



I shall not outlast my shame. 

 The coward, does he mean to miss me ? 



His right hand shakes like a leaf; 

 Shall I live for my friends to hiss me, 



Of fools and of knaves the chief? 

 Shall I live for my foes to twit me ? 



He has master'd his nerve again — 

 He is firm, he will surely hit me — 



Will he reach the heart or the brain ? 

 One long look eastward and northward — 



One prayer — '* Our Father which art " — 



And the cough chimes in with the fourth 



word, 



And I shoot skyward — the heart. 

 229 



